[24
JUL 00] COVENTRY
AND WARWICKSHIRE PROMOTIONS NEWS
Coventry Outguns Stratford And Warwick For Tourists
More
people visited Coventry in 1998 than Stratford and Warwick put
together, and they brought £173 million into the city with them.
In
total 5.4 million tourists, business visitors and people coming to see
friends and family came to the city during the year.
It
is the first time that official figures have been calculated for the
city.
The
biggest draw was Coventry cathedral, with an estimated 250,000
visitors, while the Museum of British Road Transport was ranked the
most satisfying.
It
scored an average of 4.7 on a scale of one to five.
Surveys
for Stratford show 3.8 million visitors, while Warwick attracted 1.5
million.
The
money brought into Coventry totalled £173 million and accounts for
6,000 full or part time jobs. Of this 43 per cent was spent in shops
and 34 per cent on catering accommodation.
Of
the different visitors to Coventry, business delegates from overseas
were the biggest spenders, averaging £93 a day.
The
figures were calculated by the Heart of England Tourist Board, who
carried out extensive surveys among visitors.
The
two-year study found that a fifth of the overseas tourists (around
60,000 in total) came from the United States. Australia was the source
of 15 per cent of foreign visitors, with Germany providing ten per
cent.
The
results were then processed through a formula called the Cambridge
economic model, which is the standard method of calculating tourism
figures.
Coventry’s
figures are a quarter of Birmingham’s, which is the fourth most
visited city in Britain.
John
Heeley, chief executive of Coventry and Warwickshire Promotions, said:
“The
real importance of these figures is that for the first time we have
some proper research to work with.
“We
now have a benchmark to tell is whether all the work we are doing to
make Coventry a more interesting visitor destination is paying
off.”
Dr
Heeley added that one area that could be improved is St Mary’s
Guildhall, which is rarely open to tourists.
The
14th century building, next to the old cathedral only attracts around
15,000 visitors a year. It is closed from October to Easter and is
also shut on Fridays and Saturdays during the summer months.
Dr
Heeley said of the council-run hall:
“It
is a place that we certainly feel responsibility for promoting and
we include in events such as Writers At The Hall and Heritage open
Days, but a lot more could be done with it if we were given the
chance, particularly when you consider that it is next to the
cathedral.”
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